THE VANDALISM of a war memorial in a Hampshire park has sparked outrage with staff and officials.

Park staff have said they are fearful that a D-Day war memorial will remain damaged after discovering the slate statue has been engraved by vandals using stone.

Now park manager Phil Halliwell has said they will be looking into any possible way to repair the damage.

It comes after war memorial photographer Mark Newton discovered a selection of drawings and writing on the memorial in Royal Victoria Country Park at the weekend.

He has said it is “disgusting” and “horrified that someone could deface such an important piece of public property.”

Mr Newton, an army veteran from Swansea, was visiting the memorial at the park in Netley as part of an ongoing project to take photos of memorials across the UK to raise money for Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

The 50-year-old said: “I couldn’t believe it, I was looking around the park and the hospital cemetery and then saw this memorial which had all these awful scratchings in the stone - it looked like the sort of thing a young person would do.

“Why would anyone think that was acceptable to do that? It’s disgusting.

"What makes it worse is that it’s been engraved with stone on to a slate memorial so there is no way of repairing that.”

Park manager Phil Halliwell said he was aware of the problem issue and said they had experienced problems with young people engraving on the memorials over the last couple of years.

He said: “I think it’s sadly a case of it’s the end of school holidays and they’re all out and decide as a group to do something.

"Sadly when it’s engraved we can’t do a lot to repair it but I will be talking with Hampshire County Council to see if there is anything we can do to treat the stone at all which might help.

“We can’t stop people going there so it makes it difficult to know what’s happening there all the time.

"Obviously we find it really disappointing that people feel it’s OK to do this.”

A Hampshire County Council spokesperson said: “We are aware of the damage to the D-Day memorial on site at the Royal Victoria Country Park.

"When our rangers see damage like in this instance, they do their best to remove or repair it, and keep these historic and special monuments in good condition so that they can be enjoyed by visitors across our country parks.”

A spokesperson for The Royal British Legion added: “The Legion is shocked and saddened to hear of this incident.

"War memorials and graves honour the memory of the Armed Forces’ personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice and those who defend the freedom we enjoy.

"They deserve to be treated with the utmost respect.”